Ink
by TJ Dragonblade
Summary: Sai believes in always being prepared. Gen. Mostly an excuse to develop some head-canon regarding Sai's techniques.


~~~***~~~  
Sai did not believe in luck. He never had. Trusting events or circumstances to arrange themselves in one's favor was quite foolish, in his opinion; far more sensible to plan ahead and be prepared.

He knew his signature jutsu, powerful and efficient though it was, had one or two potentially deadly flaws. It required a supply of his chakra-infused ink, his scroll to receive it and tools to apply it, all of which could conceivably be lost or unavailable in a combat situation. It required time to draw a beast for animation; Sai was well-practiced and capable of producing a serviceable drawing in seconds, but acknowledged all the same that he was vulnerable during those seconds and that someday his speed might yet be too slow.

He needed to develop a contingency plan.

~*~  
His first thought was a simple one. If he carried a scroll of pre-drawn beasts with him, he could eliminate the time taken to draw in combat situations.

He disregarded the idea almost immediately.

His scroll was not the ordinary mundane variety used by shinobi for everyday sealing-and-storage or written correspondence. It was carefully crafted by means known only to those in Root, strands of his hair woven into the fiber of it and his blood tinting the rusty dye of the binding. His DNA was part of the scroll's make up, sealed and blended to the raw material by means of a jutsu Danzou had invented, binding it to him and his chakra-in short, it was 'keyed' to him and he was the only one who could use it, making it difficult if not impossible for anyone to copy or imitate his jutsu without such a scroll of their own.

Making another would be quite involved. Even if he did, however, and filled it with drawings he would be likely to need in battle, he would need to find space for it in his gear, or seal it with other necessities in a packing scroll, which would make it slower to access in an ambush. Using it would require finding the appropriate beast for the given situation, which would likely take just as long as drawing what he needed on the spot. It was an inefficient solution, and it completely failed to address the possibility of losing his tools, the initial reason he was seeking a contingency plan in the first place.

It wasn't as if he could simply draw on any available surface if needed, either; it was the combination of his keyed scroll, his chakra-infused ink, and the slight 'primer' of live chakra that he fed through the bared skin of his thumb and forefinger into the brush and the ink and the drawing that made his jutsu work the way it did.

Performing his techniques without the proper tools was not simple by any means.

But, if he had something that was already keyed with his chakra and DNA, that wouldn't consume valuable packing space in his gear and couldn't be lost...

~*~  
The next day, Sai made his way to a small shop tucked unobtrusively behind a bakery and an accountant's office in one of Konoha's civilian commercial districts, and asked to speak with the proprieter.

Takamura-san had been tattooing Konoha's ANBU for nearly five decades. He was tall and lean with a long leathery face and hard eyes, and a colorful full-sleeve mural of koi and cherry blossoms decorating his right arm. His shop was small and diffusely lit, neat and clean to all the senses, and equipped with several discreet exits - a necessity when contracting services to elite shinobi who dealt extensively in stealth and anonymity. Sai could dimly recall receiving his own tattoo here years ago; he had no reason to doubt the old man's discretion or his skill.

Takamura-san frowned thoughtfully as Sai explained his theory, and agreed that it held enough merit to try. He showed Sai to the back room and brought out his needles and inks; together they compared samples to Sai's drawing ink, determining which would hold the best chakra charge. When they had settled on a candidate, Sai quickly went through the seals and infused a measure of his chakra into a small sample of the liquid, then sketched out his first test subject.

The prepared sample was enough to ink three tracking mice, small and discreet on the inside of his right forearm. Sai watched with detached interest, tuning out the buzz of the needle and the minor pain while Takamura-san worked swiftly and efficiently.

He left the shop just over an hour later with a bandage on his arm and the promise to return when he had results to share.

~*~  
He suspected that his chakra in the ink probably quickened the process somewhat, but he waited the requisite six weeks for the tattoos to heal completely all the same before he attempted to animate one of the mice.

It was different than activating a drawing from the scroll; it took less effort, likely because his skin contained far more of his DNA and chakra than his scroll, and it was mildly painful when the ink pulled free from the skin it had healed into. But the little mouse rose from his arm and took on solid three-dimensional form as expected, and Sai felt a small surge of satisfaction. His theory that direct contact with the chakra in his body would facilitate the animation process had been correct. Provided he still had his ink and a brush, or even his finger, he could probably succeed in drawing on his skin and animating it as well. But if tattoos would animate and respond and perform like the drawings he was accustomed to making, he would no longer be without his greatest weapon if his tools were unavailable.

He tested everything he could think of - command, control, perception, reconaissance - that he was generally able to accomplish with his beasts and ultimately found that an animated tattoo was essentially no different from an animated drawing.

He started forming the sign to dispel the mouse, then paused. It occurred to him that he might be able to adapt the basic fuinjutsu behind his koshi tandan technique to re-seal the ink to his body rather than let it dissipate; he could faintly detect the same residual chakra anchors prickling in his skin that he used with the tiger to keep it bound to the scroll. He calculated a few minor alterations, accounting for the differences in what this new sealing technique was meant to do, and attempted to return the mouse to its original tattoo form.

His skin was tender and mildly swollen when he'd finished, much like it had been directly after his visit to Takamura-san, but he was pleased with his success. Tattooing was a viable contingency plan, would give him a fall-back trump card in emergency situations, and it wouldn't even be necessary to have the tattoos re-inked once used as he'd originally thought, not unless they were destroyed or otherwise dispelled while separated from him.

He made a mental note to talk to Sakura about medical chakra techniques that he might be able to learn, both for monitoring the chakra in the tattoos and for hastening the healing once they'd been deployed and re-sealed, then turned his attention to number, variety and placement. He should have at least one of each of the beasts he used most often, and they should be hidden by his clothing in the interests of keeping them secret from enemies on the battlefield -

He wondered then if Takamura-san could possibly tattoo him with colorless ink; that way he could even be stripped naked in front of an enemy without revealing his backup plan, barring an adversary with powers akin to the Hyuuga or Uchiha clans.

It was worth asking, in any case.

~*~  
He left Takamura-san's shop a few days later with an arranged time to return for the first of his new tattoos and the old man's assurance that he could mix a colorless ink with the proper consistency to hold the chakra infusion. Takamura-san also verified that using medical chakra techniques to speed the healing process would not adversely affect the tattoo.

Sai leapt up to the rooftops and started back across the village to his apartment. He would still need to talk to Sakura, about several things now - increasing his sensitivity to the chakra in his tattoos would be vital to his ability to manipulate and control them if they were virtually invisible, but he was confident that he would have no problems refining those skills. He allowed himself a small smile, feeling quite satisfied.

He had devised a successful patch for the major flaws of his signature technique and was certain that, once it was fully implemented, he would be much better prepared to defend himself and his comrades in unforeseen situations.


End file.
